1.2.13-Kingedmundsroyalmurder
Brick!club chapter 13: of children, petty theft, and fever dreams I’m back! I’m caught up on my reading but not my posting, so I’m going to try to get these all out tonight and get back on track. This should be the last time I’m out of town until field school in June, so hopefully I won’t fall massively behind again. This is nice stress relief because it lets me procrastinate on my schoolwork but it’s not just mindless browsing of tumblr or playing of facebook games so it feels productive. Anyway. On to the first of the catch up chapters: terrifying soon-to-be-reformed criminal vs. ten-tear-old child (with guest appearances from Extended Metaphor). So this chapter is the first time that I do actually buy the whole Jean Valjean hated everything idea that Hugo’s been trying to push on us for the past several chapters. I still don’t see it as strongly as Hugo wants me to, but I’m starting to sort of see it in his character. I really like this line: “Il n’eût pu dire s’il était touché ou humilié.” (He couldn’t have said if he was touched or humiliated.) It really brings out how it isn’t always easy to receive charity and compassion, particularly when you think you don’t deserve it or when receiving it shakes your entire worldview. (“I’ll spit his pity right back in his face” says Javert when being physically saved later on. And whether Javert can’t cope with being saved comes from the person he’s built Jean Valjean up to be in his mind or just his rigidity of character is a discussion for later. And you can bet that when that discussion happens I will be right there going, “parallels! look at all the parallels!” (I have Thoughts about Javert and Enjolras parallels as well as the obvious Javert.Jean Valjean ones. And now I’m really going to stop.)) Anyway, yes, Valjean is wandering the countryside more or less aimlessly when suddenly there comes a plot device completely random child whose sole personality traits are cheerfulness and bravery. I am interested to note that at no point in any of this does Jean Valjean think even briefly of his nephews, not even when he’s being reformed and crying on the ground. He really has put everything behind him, hasn’t he? But apparently not quite everything yet because he steals the coin for no reason other than that it’s there and he can. And the more Petit-Gervais demands it the less inclined Jean Valjean is to give it up, which is something I can understand. Stubbornness is a dangerous thing. So then the child runs off sobbing and Valjean’s conscience catches up to him. And he’s suddenly running a fever apparently, which frankly explains a lot about the next bit. But first he has to go assault a random priest and be precisely as insistent as Petit-Gervais was earlier. That insistence gets him as few results as it did the kid and finally he collapses to the ground sobbing. During the inner turmoil sequence that follows we get a return to the idea of extremes. Valjean at this point sees precisely two choices: he can go be an angel or he can turn into a complete monster. The idea of being a decent, hardworking, ordinary citizen who gave what he could and wasn’t anything special doesn’t seem to have occurred to him. Given how utterly rubbish he is at crime it’s probably a good thing that he chose the path of the angels, but it’s still not embracing moderation in anyway. This book isn’t good at that so far. I love that bit about goodness hurting just as much as pain. That’s totally something I can relate to — really excessive happiness over an extended period of time is physically painful just as much as intense unhappiness. Plus the being dazzled by sudden light bit, which is more on the extended light symbolism we’ve got going on here. I appreciate that Valjean’s transformation is neither immediate nor painless. It feels a lot more realistic this way. More discussion about Valjean’s animal instinct and I’m wondering if this is the last we’ll see of it. Is that going to be purged by the Bishop’s light or will it occasionally come surging back up out of nowhere and threaten to overwhelm him, a reminder of what once was and the past he can never quite escape. There’s also more dissociation, which I’m still attributing partly to being hungry and tired and feverish on top of dealing with High Emotions. The bishop has now literally become his candlesticks. I’m not sure if he would be horrified or find it amusing. Also more casual misogyny from Hugo, of which there will be rather a lot more in a couple chapters. I normally don’t mind Hugo’s authorial affectation of not being omniscient but this time I do. No one knows what happened to him? We just lost that time? Will thirty years elapse before we hear from him again? I want to know how Valjean turns himself into Madelaine and becomes the mayor of M-sur-M and learns manners and business sense and how to buy the right clothes and have the right accent and smile at people he dislikes. Does he have a mentor? Does he do it on his own? Are there awkward transition moments where he doesn’t know what he is? Does he have a plan? Are there more moments of faltering, of hopelessness, of re-surging hatred for the world of pain and misery around him? Why are you skipping so much time in the story of the man who is theoretically your protagonist, Hugo? We can spare 14 chapters about the Bishop but nothing about Valjean’s later life. Pacing and priorities Hugo, you need some. (Not that I don’t love the Bishop, mind you.)